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Lilith
Lilith is the third studio album by American singer Rachel Woods, released by Interscope Records on November 10, 2015. It was co-written by Woods with several producers, including Dr. Luke and Nick Monson, with whom she had previously worked. The music of Lilith stems from the urban and dance-pop styles of her previous material while incorporating different forms of instrumentation from that on her previous releases, such as electronic hip hop and techno. Despite divided opinions among religious and conservative commentators, the album was well received by music critics, who praised the varying musical styles and Woods' vocals; others felt Woods was trying too hard to please everyone with the variety of styles. Several music publications included the album in their year-end best-of lists. Lilith received four Grammy Award nominations, including Woods' first nomination for Album of the Year. Lilith debuted in the top five spots of every major music chart worldwide, including the Billboard 200. In the United States, the record sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week—the highest first-week album sales that year. The album has since sold six million copies worldwide. Four of the album's singles—"Supernova", "Beautiful Sinner", "The Crying Game", and "Cupid Boy"—charted in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Background and recording In January 2015, Woods disclosed that she was working on a new album, saying that she had written many of the songs for the proposed album. A few months after the announcement, Woods appeared on the cover of People to show her first child and exclaimed that becoming a mother totally influenced on how her album was turning out: "I've been working on my third album and I must confess being a mother has directly affected my creative side. I'm creating new sounds and practicing dance moves plus vocal preparation for the new performances." Writing and composition In terms of musical composition, Lilith ''is considered to be a notable departure from Woods' previous works. The album contains mainly up-tempo dance and urban songs. Lyrically, the album explores heavily a Biblical influence, as well as sexual themes because of the Lilith persona, which is a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexual wanton. The first song, "Supernova" is an electronic dance track that incorporates influences of dubstep, and samples the aforementioned Nom de Strip's composition, "Bake & Shake". The track opens with electronic beats, which then showcases Woods' "synthesized" vocals over dubstep–electronic production. Several parts of the track present instrumentation of keyboards, synthesizers, and a drum machine, and ends with Woods singing the chorus. Lyrically, it delves into sexual seduction, with Woods "threatening" to "drop her skirt" to attract male attention. The second track is "Beautiful Sinner". It's about a woman who falls in love with a so-called "sinner", with Woods singing "you are the type of bad that feels so good". Woods begins the track rapping like herself and continues the track with strong vocals. The beat's just as good, dramatic and deep-hitting, having dynamic variation. "Roman Holiday" is a fast-paced hip-hop and pop rap and song influenced by opera music. It features a complex production, utilizing elements such as rattling sound effects, sonic drops, synths, and lasers. The song also references the traditional hymn "Oh Come All Ye Faithful". On "Ice Princess", the fourth track, Woods is playing dress up, but this time the pendulum swings back in the other direction. Woods slips into the costume of a mainstream rapper, spitting knotty rhymes about her diamonds—"Winter wonderland body so frosty in that Bugatti," she says at one point. The beat, supplied by AraabMuzik, further drives the point: the production on "Ice Princess" hollows out Morgan Page's "In the Air" until it has the unmistakable rattle of Chicago drill, America’s purest form of street rap. "The Crying Game", the fifth song, mixes "sombre balladry with downbeat guitar loops" and is described as one of the album's most emotional songs. During the song, Woods alternates between "devastating verses and pensive crooning". The sixth track is "Bow Down", is produced by The Invisible Men and The Arcade, and is more urban oriented than the previous ones. The song is mainly about Woods calling herself a goddess, and demand the listeners to bow down to her, which follows the Lilith character. "The Boys", the seventh track, is a mix of dancehall, folk and machine gun beats. It features a mix of synth swoops, syncopated percussion and gurgling acoustic guitar arpeggios by Jeberg and Baptiste. It also has a "throbbing beat, harsh basslines and hyperactive breaks. The song is about a "pithy kiss-off to men who try to buy love with money and jewels." "Venus", the eighth track, is a synth-pop and dance-pop song consisting of four hooks. Woods' vocal delivery is similar to that of David Bowie in his persona Ziggy Stardust, while the song's structure is reminiscent of Bananarama's 1986 single of the same name. Along with the Bowie-esque verses, there's one hook where the beat drops, then another hook where it starts building up, and finally the chorus is reached. The song is described as "total pop euphoria" with Woodsaga belting the lyrics, "When you touch me I die just a little inside / I wonder if this could be love!". The ninth track "Cupid Boy" finds inspiration from English alternative rock band New Order and features Woods delivering "lusty" vocals over a retro bass line. Its intro, New Order-influenced bass line, and rock guitar instrumentation positively surprised critics. "Sexercize" is the tenth song on the album. Musically, it's a dubstep0influenced track that incorporates elements of R&B and electronic dance music. Lyrically, the song talks about sexual intercourse with a partner, basically referencing the sexercizing technique. "Mr. President" is the eleventh track follows a electropop sound. It features samples of Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" speech. Primadonna", the twelveth track, is a dance-pop song that blends grinding disco and electropop beats with elements of Europop. Woods' vocals in the song have been described as operatic. Revolving around an anti-chorus song structure, the chorus is sung in a high tone over sparkly instrumentation before the beat drops to grinding four on the floor verses, where she sings in the gravelly tones of her lower register. "If I Was God" is the thirteenth track off ''Lilith. ''It's a mainly pop song with heavy beats and very raw vocals. In the lyrics Woods asks her partner if he would love her if she were poor, and reflects on what would she change in the world if she was God. The fourteenth track, "Alone", is a mid tempo electropop song. It's Woods ironic interpretation of American celebrity worship, using God as a metaphor. "Looking for an Angel" closes the album and is one of the first songs Woods and Price wrote together for the album. It's composed of "celestial synth strings" and contains an extended breakdown. Release and promotion On August 24, 2015, the website Buzz leaked a low quality version of "Supernova". Three days later, they leaked the high quality final version of the song online. On August 31, Woods performed "Supernova" for the first time at the MTV Video Music Awards, and the song was officially released at the following midnight. "Supernova" was heavily promoted on TV shows, such as Saturday Night Live, Today and Good Morning America. On September 7, E! News showed a preview of the music video, one day prior to its official release. On September 19, Interscope Records released a short version of the video without the "Bow Down" introduction, due to fans demand. On November 5, Lilith started to leak on the internet song by song. By the following day, the full album was already leaked online, five days away from the official release. On the official release day, Woods went on Good Morning America and performed a pocket show to many fans. Lilith was also supported by the Beautiful Sinner Tour, which started on February 19, 2016. Singles "Supernova" was released as the lead single off the album on September 1, 2015. It received positive reviews from music critics and was a commercial success, peaking at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one in the UK Singles Chart. It was Woods' first song to find success in streaming, due to the rise of Spotify, and the music video broke the record of views in the first 24 hours, at the time, by 16 million. "Beautiful Sinner" was released as the second single off the album on October 26, 2015. It was released at 06:06:06 AM by Interscope Records, as a marketing attempt. By its release, "Beautiful Sinner" peaked at number 2 on the US iTunes chart, staying behind Natasha Lewis' "Lemonade", but eventually the song became Woods' biggest hit to date, peaking atop the US Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks, and also peaking at number 1 in many charts around the globe. "The Crying Game" and "Roman Holiday" were released as the third singles off the album on January 8, 2016. The former was released worldwide and the latter only in the US. Both songs reached good results in most charts due to the extensive promotion pre-tour, especially "The Crying Game", which is now one of Woods' most iconic ballads. It even reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, while "Roman Holiday" peaked at number 6 on the Hot 100. "Venus" was released as the fourth single off Lilith on February 10, 2016. It performed well commercially, reaching the top 20 in many charts worldwide even with the lack of promotion. Part of the song's success is due to the iconic music video, which gained a lot of views. The final single off the album, "Cupid Boy", was released on April 15, 2016. The single performed admirably well especially after the iconic and remarkable performance at the CSAV Awards 2016. It peaked at number 10 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, which was great considering it's the final single. Critical reception ''Lilith received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 34 reviews. Dan Martin of NME said that "it's a damn good thing" that Woods "doesn't know when to hold back" and complimented her for pushing musical boundaries to its "ultimate degree." Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine opined: "There's nothing small about this album, and Woods sings and even raps the shit out of every single track." Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield felt that "the more excessive Woods gets, the more honest she sounds." Caryn Ganz of Spin felt that "excess is Woods' riskiest musical gamble, but it's also her greatest weapon, and Lilith relentlessly bludgeons listeners' pleasure centres". In MSN Music, Robert Christgau found the album to not be on-par with Revolution, but added that "that one keep growing, and with its mad momentum and nutty thematics, this one could too." In a mixed review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt that the album was messy and sounded like "a major artist sprinting to please everyone all the time." Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called it "her messiest album to date" and wrote that it combines "some daring songwriting with some remarkably repetitive themes and beats." Chris Richards of The Washington Post found it "boring" and said that "at its worst, it sounds like reheated leftovers from some good scrapped album." Andy Gill of The Independent''critiqued that "the broader Woods spreads her net musically, the less distinctive her art becomes." ''The Boston Globe said that the songwriting "feels thin" and called the album "the most deflated moment in pop music this year". Commercial performance Lilith debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 after having sold more than 600,000 copies during the first week. It became the third-best-selling album of the year in the United States, with sales of 1,101,000 copies. The album received triple platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold 3.12 million copies in total in the US as of February 2018. Following Woods' Super Bowl 50 halftime show performance, Lilith re-entered the Billboard 200 to 10 at number 4, selling 57,000 total album-equivalent units. The album debuted at the top spot in Australia, becoming her second number-one album there after Revolution. Lilith was certified platinum in Australia in its first week by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and has since been certified double platinum for a shipment of 140,000 copies. Lilith also debuted at the top spot on the New Zealand Albums Chart, becoming her second album to chart there, after Revolution. The album was certified platinum in its first week of sales. Lilith sold 168,000 copies in its first week in Japan, and debuted atop the Oricon chart. It has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipment of 750,000 copies. In the United Kingdom, Lilith debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 188,736 units, which was the highest first-week sales of the year. As of January 2017, the album has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), selling a total of 989,000 copies in the UK. The album debuted at number one in Ireland, and Sweden. In France, Lilith debuted at number one on the French Albums Chart and held that spot for two weeks. As of August 2016, the album has sold 180,000 copies and has been certified double-platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP). As of August 2016, sales of the album were announced to have reached 6 million copies. Track listing